I don't know. What we think of as sane my not be so. There are some people that just have absolutly NO concience whatsoever and so they do not feel compassion, guilt, and so on. Yet they can mimic it perfectly an do so because they know that this is the norm. So does this mean that they are insane? They know enough about appropriate behavior in order to be able to display it when needed, yet they choose not to follow the rules of society anyway because they think they are above it. I don't know. It's a fine line between insanity and willfull defiance.

1. Chapmin WAS/IS Mentally ill, he is a paranoid schizophrenic. Not that this is an excuse. But to say he wasn't mentally ill is wrong.

2. His parole hearing was denied[2 times]

Quote

The parole board was headed by R. Guy Vizzie. The other members were W. William Smith Jr. and Daniel J. Doyle.

Parole is denied. You murdered the victim, John Lennon, when you fired a .38 special caliber Charter Arm revolver, filled with hollow-point bullets. You discharged all five chambers and hit Mr. Lennon as many as four times. Mr. Lennon was returning to his residence and was in the company of his wife when you committed this murder. This act was calculated and unprovoked. You had planned this crime for a protracted period of time and it is apparent that you were obsessed in causing fatal harm to John Lennon. In addition to being an international celebrity, Mr. Lennon was a husband and a father of two young children.

During your incarceration, you have maintained an exemplary disciplinary record which this panel has noted and considered. This panel also recognizes that, because of your continued special housing status, you have been unable to avail yourself of anti-violence and/or anti-aggression programming.

Your most vicious and violent act was apparently fueled by your need to be acknowledged. During your parole hearing, this panel noted your continued interest in maintaining your notoriety.

When all factors are reviewed, your discretionary release is determined to be inappropriate. Additionally, this panel strongly believes that your release to parole supervision at this time would deprecate the seriousness of the crime and serve to undermine respect for the law.

3. His next parole hearing is October of this year.

4. Yes JOhn signed an autograph for him. And apparently, someone got a pic of them together too.

[quote by=Taxgirl link=Blah.pl?b=lennon,m=1092973893,s=18 date=1093861589]I just wonder, if MDC was offially pronounced mentally ill, even before what he did, why wasn't he in the hospital, and how could he have a gun. [/quote]

Because not all schizophrenics kill. Most of them do not belong in mental hospitals, my best friend is schizophrenic and he takes alot of medicine and always will, he's not going to go kill someone, Mark had a little extra sh!t in him if you ask me. and it was 1980, gun laws were nil back then

Exactly. This man was functioning enough to know that he needed help but he chose not to get it. He would rather live out his delusional fantasies. Calling someone schizophrenic certainly does not mean they have no power over the choices they make and there's a lot of help out there for them if they choose to take it. He was smart enought to get on a plane, find out where John lived, get his autograph, and they lay in wait. I've worked w/ people who have some degree of mental illness, schizophrenics, psychotics, etc. and they cannot funtion half as well as this guy did. Uh, yet they have never thought to muder someone. 'This guy had WAY more going on. Like his need to be noticed as the patrol board said. Anyway, he knew he was in trouble mentally, he even said it. And then he chose not to do anything about it. So he was at fault plain and simple. Not everyone that's a cold blooded murderer can blame it on mental illness. That's an insult to the peple that actually have those issues.